The Halloween Parade
by Ariadne Bassarid
Summary: Anonymity is a fine excuse, but the thing about Halloween is... The masks have to come off. puppyshipping, Jou x Kaiba, futurefic, COMPLETE
1. All Hallows

The Halloween Parade

('scuse typos, please.)

**Chapter One: All Hallows**

Seto Kaiba sat hidden in an alcove, deep in the back of the ballroom. He was sitting on a huge throne with monstrous claws for its feet and black bones for its arms. At the top of its back, there was a wickedly curved dragon skull. It leered over him at any partygoers who stopped to stare through the decorations.

He was trying to hide from the party. He liked publicity spectacles as much as the next person – okay, he liked them much _more_ than the next person – but this was just ridiculous. His chair was obscured from most of the crowd by strands of hanging skulls and chains of bones, and a relentless mass of glowing spider webs. It seemed like a lot of those cobwebs were now beginning to get stuck in their hair or their hats or some other part of their costume.

The whole Halloween party was the brat's pet project. It was like his little brother had been taken over by pod people sometime during puberty – no, it was like that kid in The Exorcist. Any second now Mokuba's head could spin right around 360 and Seto wouldn't be surprised. So much enthusiasm for... Everything. Probably Seto should have made him eat a more balanced breakfast while he was growing up.

Yeah. Grapefruit. Bran. Wholegrain toast. Not those sugar-covered-candy-Os his little brother had chowed down on for the last ten years. Maybe those nutritionists were on to something. Well, if they hadn't tried to make him change his diet too – i.e., to stop drinking coffee and start eating... well, _food_ – he wouldn't have fired them so quickly. It was their own damn fault.

And now Mokuba had decided that he could throw much better parties at the Kaiba Mansion than the Playboy Mansion had ever seen. Well, sure. If he could organise entire tournaments as a child, what was shipping a tonne of decorations – literally – from the US for a little soiree?

Kaiba had, of course, been against it. Let a hoard of squawling, sprawling, drunken, masked strangers into his _house_? Uh... No. And a hell of a lot HELL no, too. But some things never changed, and unfortunately Mokuba's wheedling was one of them. Somewhere between Mokuba promising NOT to get a tattoo and only stick to piercings (little ones!), and crossing his heart that Kaiba would not have to endure the horror of _another_ forced birthday party for himself next month, Kaiba'd had to agree. Had to. Because Mokuba was still the same sweet, puppy-dog-eyed kid he'd always been. He was still thoughtful, calming, caring and dismayingly persuasive. Except now he used his powers for evil, not good.

Also, Kaiba really hated birthday parties.

Except now Seto Kaiba was sitting in a much bigger kind of party. That was different, apparently. For one thing,this whole thing was a _fundraiser_. A fundraiser to raise money for medical attention for children in third world countries.

Okay, okay. He had to admit that it was an amazing party, but that didn't mean he liked the vacuous crowd of party-goers who were first and foremost interested in nosing around the inside of the infamous Kaiba mansion. He didn't like sitting up on a spooky pedestal under a hellish red light. He felt like he was supposed to be on display like some kind of party prop.

On the other hand, the alternative was to go down and mingle, and sitting was the option he was going with. If he sat still enough they might look at his costume and figure he _was_ just a prop.

_Of course _he wasn't sulking. Seto Kaiba didn't _sulk_. (Well, except for when he missed an episode of _Hospital Hopeless_ because another board meeting went late.) Kaiba was just keeping an eye on things. And there was a lot to keep an eye on. In fact, as good a job as Mokuba had done turning their home into some inner circle of hell, the partygoers were by far the scariest part of the whole thing.

For example, it was hard to tell the guests apart from the blood-dripping, shifting, screaming, oozing decorations that filled the ballroom, especially when you factored in that some of the 'party guests' were actually actors paid to scare people in ways that were both disgusting and creative. The music was heavy, booming, dangerous, and a few hours in people were really starting to let loose. He'd seen everything from two men in a horse suit to the Terminator to no less than thirteen freakin' Draculas gathered together for a photograph. Yuugi Mutou was out there somewhere in full pharaoh garb – talk about predictable. There were witches, zombies, belly dancers, cowgirls, werewolves, bunnies, more than a few dead brides and a truly ridiculous number of duel monsters.

And that was when he saw the absolutely gorgeous Dark Magician Girl dancing with the man who was, apparently, a Greek god.

Dionysus, if Kaiba had to guess. The man was dressed in a long, white, piece of fabric – a costume impression of a Greek tunic, the flowing fabric gathered at only one shoulder, showing off its wearer's shaped, strong chest and leaving toned arms bare – except for where a snake trailed down the left one. The tunic's white colour only emphasised the honey tan of the man's skin, and its fabric swirled like a dress, flashing equally honey-brown legs underneath it. A strip of leopard print fur followed the fabric where it gathered in the waist, up to the gold pin at the shoulder. Long, sandy blonde hair was pushed back off the man's face, intertwined with vine leaves and grapes. And the face itself – a dark purple Greek theatre mask which covered his face entirely and revealed nothing about the man's features. The face was grinning. The theatre mask was the clue to what this costume was supposed to be.

Kaiba was intrigued. What kind of person dressed as a greek god for Halloween? Of course, it was pretty obvious this guy was a god. Kaiba had studied world religions for two reasons: out of a mingled curiosity and contempt for humanity, and a desire to pillage them for new duel monsters cards and attributes. Kaiba knew the man was dressed as a god, and which one – he'd done classical myth inside out. But mostly Kaiba knew he was a god from the way he moved to the music.

The man was confident, completely at ease with himself, completely unconscious of the way his body moved. It seemed to move without thought, without care, carried along by the thrum of the music and the movements of his dance partner. In short, it was unbelievably sexy.

Argh. Argh, argh, ARGH!

And it only made matters worse that the Dark Magician Girl he was dancing with was petite, shapely, and completely _failed_ to be horribly disfigured on her cute little face. There was something familiar about that face. Kaiba stared at it for a second, the feeling of vague recognition niggling the shit out of him. Then he cocked his head. They were the only couple on the dance floor that weren't all over each other. Maybe it wasn't all over for him, then.

Only, he'd have to venture off his throne if he actually wanted to meet someone. Literally, metaphorically... Sexily.

Meet someone? Now that gave him pause. Kaiba hadn't tried to _meet_ anyone in a while. Specifically, since that little shit of a chauffeur's son had shoved him out of the closet and into the bright lights of the press. Cynical as he was even then, he hadn't thought it necessary to do background checks on his employees' children. Now he did.

So three years. Three years without any real attempt at a relationship. A couple of dates for publicity spin, that was all. One tawdry, pathetic fumble for some paparazzi and then Kaiba had become more reclusive than ever.

Dionysus was leaving the dance floor. He was passing the Dark Magician Girl off to Harry Potter. He was heading outside – where there were marquees of drinks, food, and of course, there was the outdoor swimming pool.

Kaiba watched him, a growing feeling of anxiety gnawing at him somewhere between his stomach and, well... Other parts. He hadn't felt this in a while. That awful, wonderful rush of should-I shouldn't-I, could-I would-he-notice? If he didn't move, in a moment he would lose Dionysus in the crowd.

This was probably a mistake.

Still.

Kaiba found himself standing up and wading into the carnival mass of bodies.

* * *

Breathe, just breathe, just breathe, Jounouchi told himself. He'd fought his way through the crowd, to the very edge of the garden party. He'd stumbled once or twice on a near-hidden tombstone, and utterly failed to be terrified by the demon who sprung out at him from behind a bush.

He had to hand it to the Kaibas, they sure knew how to throw a party. Pity that they didn't do it more often. Still, Mokie was a sweet kid, and had personally invited Jounouchi last time they'd bumped into each other in a bar, over a month earlier.

But he hadn't liked what Mokuba else had implied at the time. There was a certain wiggle to his eyebrows when Mokuba said maybe he and Kaiba would finally make up their old grudge if they just hung out like pals. There was also the fact that when Mokuba said it, he phrased it "finally make out" before giving a coy, "Oops! Make UP."

Little snot.

Him and Kaiba would never get past the old days. It didn't matter how mature they got, how well set up Jounouchi was these days with his own damn business (so what if it was a pizza place? He was the boss, damnit). There were too many years of insults there.

Jounouchi did kind of miss the old days.

God, Kaiba used to get so riled up at him. Of course, he always put on that superior, cold front, like he was so above it all and nothing could touch him. Jou knew it touched him. Jou knew that with a few choice words and a couple of faked dumb comments he could wedge himself right in under Kaiba's skin and get that big, beautiful, scornful look.

And god, that used to get _him_ so riled up.

Too bad Kaiba didn't get the same thing out of it. Well, he wouldn't have. Kaiba's scorn was real. Jounouchi knew he was just trash to the CEO, and that he did hate. He hated he could see that dismissal, that loathing in Kaiba's eyes and not something else. Maybe that made him provoke the guy. What? Like provoking people was a crime.

Well, it just about was the way they'd carried on. Once or twice Jounouchi had almost thrown himself at the guy. Honda or Yuug had always leapt in, and thank god, because Jounouchi himself had never been quite sure whether he wanted to punch Kaiba's lights out, or lock lips with him.

So here he was at Halloween. Completely safe behind holiday anonymity, free to do whatever he liked because no one could see his face. He liked his costume, too. Honda had given some shit about it being a dress, and then Jounouchi had given Honda shit about being Harry Potter because he knew the only reason Honda had dressed like Harry Potter was Shizuka's massive crush on the guy from those movies. Poor Honda. He was never gonna get that Shizuka saw him like... Well, a brother.

He'd had to get some air, though. He was used to packed bars and nightclubs, but this was another level entirely. Plus he was sick of things glowing at him and bleeding on him. Halloween was fun, but he was glad it was only for one night.

So here he stood at the very edge of the crowd, in a small tent where the music was not exactly quiet, but did allow you to hear other things. He drummed on the bar while one of the ghostly attendants (they were all ghosts, all dressed in white, which did help to spot 'em when you needed something) mixed him a martini. He could hear crickets somewhere off to the left in a dark mass of trees. He wondered, briefly, how many couples had snuck in there by this point in the night, or if the Kaiba brothers' security had put measures in place to stop that. It was a warm night, for autumn.

He knew Seto Kaiba was standing five metres behind him, watching him order.

The barman put Jou's drink down, gracefully plonked a green olive in, and pushed it towards Jou. Jou picked it up, and turned around. His mask saved him the need to make or fake any expression. Behind it a small smile played on his lips, but that smile would never been seen by anyone. He just had to keep looking and not stare away.

Eventually, Kaiba nodded a hello. He sauntered up to the bar and after a moment, he said to the bartender, "One of those looks good."

Kaiba stood next to him while the bartender mixed the drink.

Jounouchi felt like there was some move he ought to make, but he couldn't. Frankly, Kaiba was amazing. Jounouchi wondered if Mokuba had dressed him or if the guy's own bondage streak from back in the boots-and-trenchcoats days was making a resurgence.

He was a black dragon. Black boots, just a hint of low heel. They curved right up above his knees. The pants above them were a rouched leather, tight as hell and designed to look like scales. The pattern had some kind of black glitter smeared along it, enhancing the scales effect. His shirt was black mesh, almost see through but not quite, just enough to tease. It went down his arms, was laced up the sides, and again was not quite black but had a smoky, glittery sheen to it. Kaiba's face was half-covered, the pout of hip lips, generous to mean from moment to moment, and the curve of his nose were just visible. Above that his mask took over, a black, leathery material that curved up across his forehead to form massive, spiralling horns that shot upward.

He looked like he'd been ordered from the Duel Monsters Wet Dreams R Us catalogue.

It was extremely distracting.

Kaiba's drink was suddenly served and Jou realised that he had no idea what to do. Kaiba had followed him out of the room. But was he supposed to say something now? Would Kaiba recognise his voice?

"Nice night out," Kaiba said, suddenly.

The bartender had made himself discreet, vanishing to wipe some tables.

Jounouchi merely nodded.

Kaiba seemed to hesitate. "Nice costume," he said.

Jou caught the wince on Kaiba's lips and knew right away the other man was regretting the comment – trite small talk. Jou had done it himself a thousand times.

Jou nodded again.

Kaiba frowned and turned away.

Shit, shit, shit. This whole 'mysterious' thing was not Jounouchi's specialty. He was the good guy, the cute guy, the open-and-smiling guy. Not aloof and quiet.

"Yours too." He felt as though he'd dropped the words, and they'd shattered on the floor. He held his breath. Surely Kaiba would recognise that voice. Did he want Kaiba to recognise it somehow? God, he didn't know. This was like torture. Jounouchi hadn't been this close to Seto Kaiba in years.

Kaiba turned back. That mouth of his, so able to express emotion and yet expressing it so rarely, now looked full, pleased. "Are you enjoying yourself?" The question had a flat intonation, careless – a little too careless. Kaiba's posture screamed "disinterested" and Jounouchi realised with a flush of pleasure that it was the most fake disinterest he'd ever seen.

Jou cleared his throat. "Very much."

He looked down at his glass and realised that short of tilting his head back and pouring it in, he had no way to drink the very suave martini he'd ordered through his full mask. There was a hole for his mouth – a hole like a square bullhorn, just like in a real greek stage mask. Shit. He was such a dumbass sometimes. The only way to get out of it was to make it a joke.

"I'd... Uh, be having a better time if I could eat or drink anything." He knew he sounded sheepish.

Kaiba didn't move – didn't flinch, didn't look around – but the bartender was almost instantly at their side.

"May I suggest a straw?"

Jounouchi nodded and moments later one appeared in his glass thanks to a waiter, proving that their privacy was an illusion.

Kaiba stared hard at him and Jounouchi tried not to flinch. He poked the straw in through his mouthpiece.

Kaiba snapped his fingers. The barman leaned over. "Would you go and see if pavilion two needs extra help?" It was low, discreet, nonchalant, and just like that the man was gone.

This left Kaiba and Jounouchi standing alone, each feeling anonymous, in an empty tent full of black and orange roses and white tables.

Jounouchi gestured to one of them with an open palm.

Kaiba immediately moved to sit, although it wasn't really sitting. It was a kind of careful sprawl; relaxed, but posed. Jounouchi wondered if this was a deliberate, for his benefit, or a habit from years of media practice.

"That's some service," he said quietly. He was pleased with the comment. It was almost a compliment, but left it completely ambiguous as to whether he knew who Kaiba was or not.

Kaiba merely sipped his drink.

This was painful. It was delightful. Jounouchi was afraid to say too much, to let the conversation get to the point where he was recognised, which would surely be the point that Kaiba left.

The two sat in silence, and the silence seemed to grow. Jou thought he might have to slide himself through the tension just to get to Kaiba.

Eventually Kaiba, almost to the bottom of his martini, said, "So why Dionysus?"

Jounouchi grinned behind his mask, pleased that Kaiba guessed his bizarre costume. "Well..." He paused. "I didn't think there'd be another here."

"Not that I've seen," Kaiba said.

"You're a dragon," Jounouchi offered. He grinned even more to himself – it was such an old-style Jounouchi comment, the kind of fatuous commentary he used to make just to see Kaiba enraged.

Kaiba merely nodded and Jou couldn't tell if it had gotten to him.

"Any particular reason why?"

Kaiba frowned. "I suppose you could say that this particular costume seemed intimidating enough that people would leave me alone."

"Would you like to be alone?" Jounouchi held his breath. He knew the answer to the question already, which was why it was such a gamble. He knew Kaiba wanted him to stay – although who "him" was remained a mystery so far. The question was whether Kaiba would take the bait, rise to the flirtation, admit an attraction.

Would he hate Jounouchi more when he found out who he was – that his old rival (well, perhaps Kaiba never thought of him as a rival, but 'enemy' seemed too strong) had elicited this moment of intimacy?

Even bigger gamble.

"No," said Kaiba.

Jou would have agonised over how much to say. Kaiba simply said _no_ and that was it. The coldness of it sent a shiver down Jou's spine, and not a bad one at all.

"What do you do?" Kaiba said, now. Jounouchi watched those lips wince again. He knew the fun of the flirtation was battling with Kaiba's hatred of inane chatter.

Well, he thought he knew, anyway. He hadn't been this close to Seto Kaiba in years and still he felt as though he knew what pushed his buttons, what he felt. He'd spent years before that always watching the man, then a boy, react. He'd spent years since pathetically distracted by television broadcasts.

God, he'd once bought an issue of People because Kaiba had a photospread in the middle. It was a rare exclusive.

Jounouchi couldn't bear it.

"I own a restaurant," he said.

Kaiba actually seemed interested, here. He cocked his head to one side. "What kind of food?"

Jounouchi grinned and knew that this smile would be heard in his voice. "Pizza, pasta... My favourite kind of food."

"Hunh."

"It's pretty relaxed," Jou said. "Good atmosphere, though," he added after a moment. "And I never go hungry."

Kaiba snorted. Was that the equivalent of a laugh from a regular human? God, this was so difficult. Jou leaned forward, eyes intent on the other man's eyes. They were such an endless blue out here in the night.

"I know who you are," he confessed, even without meaning to.

Kaiba stiffened.

"Relax," Jou tried to reassure him.

"I usually don't."

"That must be exhausting." Jou said quietly, seriously.

Kaiba eyed him cautiously. Finally, he said, "Yes, it is."

He said back in his chair. Jounouchi caught himself watching Kaiba's little movement, and following the line of his skin that showed at his sides, down to the tops of his pants.

He looked back up and realised that Kaiba had seen him see this, and that Kaiba had a smirk on his lips now.

"You've finished your drink," Kaiba said. "Let me mix you another."

He didn't wait for Jou to respond – merely stood and held out his hand for the glass. Jounouchi very carefully did _not_ brush fingertips as he handed it over. That he couldn't take. He'd probably explode out of his pants – not that he was, you know, _that_ hot to go, he just... Yeah. Lust. Jounouchi had to stifle a hysterical giggle – so tightly wound, that last thought had almost made him lose his composure.

Kaiba stepped behind the bar, and Jounouchi followed him. Rather than sit, he stood and leaned both arms on the bar, deliberately adding to that little illusion of closeness between them.

After an initial moment of searching for the right ingredients, Kaiba was lithe and graceful in his cocktail-making. His movements were fluid, confident. Jounouchi wondered how many cocktails Kaiba made for himself. Probably not that lonely.

When Kaiba handed him the martini glass, Jounouchi shrugged, threw back his head and downed the entire glass in one gulp. Some of the martini didn't make it into his mouth, but thankfully it didn't drip out of the mask and Jou didn't look like a total fool. Kaiba's expression was unreadable – he may have been amused, or he may have raised an eyebrow behind that dragon mask. It was impossible to really tell. But Kaiba's eyes met his own for a long moment, and then he mimicked the gesture.

Kanpai. Down the hatch.

To Jounouchi's surprise, the shaker was full enough for another drink each. Apparently they were both planning on getting each other drunk. Well, goody.

"It takes a certain measure of confidence to wear that dress," Kaiba said, sipping this third drink more slowly. There was a smile on his lips that said he was teasing.

"It must take a certain measure of confidence to wear those pants," Jounouchi retorted unthinkingly, then froze. Old habits, god damn them to hell.

Kaiba remained expressionless. "And yet you complimented my outfit earlier."

"I didn't say they looked _bad_. But did you have someone paint them on you, or did you do it yourself?"

Kaiba's only response was another snort. For a few moments they stood in silence – a silence full of sideways glances, raised glasses, and then, out of nowhere, a shared smile as they both finished their third drink.

"Make me another." Jounouchi said.

Kaiba laughed suddenly. The sound was a harsh bark, surprising.

Jounouchi suddenly began to laugh, too. "Yeah, okay. I guess you don't get people ordering drinks from you very often? Well, I get it all the time."

Kaiba fixed them a fourth martini each.

Jounouchi was now feeling a pleasant fuzziness, which added to his sense of pleasure and danger at the conversation. For one thing, he was glad there was a bar between the two of them so he couldn't do anything like throwing himself at Kaiba.

When Kaiba handed him the fourth martini, their fingertips did brush, and Jounouchi stared down. It wasn't a brush. Neither of them pulled away. Kaiba had done it deliberately.

Damn him.

Jounouchi fumbled and the glass dropped. It managed to roll off the countertop, spilling martini mix everywhere, before it fell to the floor and smashed.

Kaiba shrugged and raised his glass to drink his own martini, but Jou reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"Stop," he said.

Kaiba wrenched his own arm back, surprised.

"I'm sorry, I can't stand it. I have to say this to you, now," Jounouchi said. "I just can't do this."

Kaiba suddenly seemed to shut off his expression. His lips froze into a hard line.

"No! I didn't mean that. I mean... Oh, hell, listen. You have to listen to this and then I'll leave you alone," he said. "You're fucking incredible and I just can't stand it. I just wanted to talk to you, and then once you actually started talking to me, I just thought maybe I could lead you off into a dark corner somewhere and it'd be too late by the time you realised. But I can't fucking do it which is probably the biggest mistake of my life."

Kaiba continued to stare at him.

"You're amazingly sexy and just enough of a jackass to be irresistible and I just had to tell you that, okay? But you know me. You already who I am."

Jounouchi reached up to grab his mask and pull it off with all the overly dramatic flare of a semi-drunk declaration of love, but this time Kaiba's hand shot out and grabbed his own.

Before Jou could reveal his face, Kaiba stared and said, "J... Jounouchi Katsuya?"

With his free hand Kaiba reached out and grabbed away the purple theatre mask himself.

* * *

Kaiba stared, shocked, bemused, amused, confused.

Staring back at him was the same pair of soft brown eyes, but now re-contextualised in an all-too-familiar face. He was dumbfounded that he hadn't recognised them sooner. The tanned skin, the blonde hair... A weakness for black dragons. Kaiba didn't know whether to be enraged or delighted. Enraged was, however, his default reaction.

He found that his hand holding the mask was shaking. His other hand was still holding Jounouchi's hand.

"Is this some kind of a joke?"

"No!" burst out Jounouchi. "God, no."

"Is this your idea of FUNNY?"

"Why would this be funny?" Jounouchi shouted, clearly exasperated.

Kaiba stared. "Well, I never really understood jokes," he said.

"...Was _that_ a joke?"

"I don't know."

"Are you going to let go of my hand?"

"I don't know."

"Okay. Well could you just – "

"Would you shut up, please?"

Kaiba stared. Jounouchi Katsuya. Jounouchi stared back at him and the look in his eyes was positively smouldering. Yeah, he was good looking, but it was hardly compensation for all of those years of being a dumbass.

Kaiba suddenly remembered an argument they'd had, in the middle of some tournament – one of so many the two had duelled at. Kaiba hadn't been playing, he'd been hosting and Jounouchi had followed him around, taunting him, insulting him, insisting it was Kaiba's fear of being beaten that had kept him out. Kaiba had completely lost it. He'd whipped out his dueldisk and given Jounouchi the beating of a lifetime – gamewise, of course. Kaiba had crushed him. And afterwards Jounouchi had grinned, held out his hand... And Kaiba had ignored him and walked away.

Which one of them was a dumbass, again?

Such a feeling of rage at the whole thing, even now. How could Jounouchi be so fucking good looking just standing there now after all those years of loathing?

Kaiba pulled Jou forward by the hand, yanked him most of the way across the bar. He crushed Jounouchi's lips to his own. The two of them fought together to find an angle across the countertop, and suddenly, lips locked, Jounouchi tumbled right over on top of Kaiba, knocking him to the ground.

Kaiba shoved at him, and Jounouchi shoved back. They pushed away from each other, each looking angry, and then they launched themselves onto one another again.

Kaiba pushed Jounouchi down backwards and suddenly found himself straddling the blonde. Christ Jesus Christ.

He rolled off.

"This isn't a joke?" he said again. He wanted to slap himself: he sounded fragile, vulnerable. Fuck it. The first time he'd been remotely interested in someone for so long and it was... Jounouchi. Damn it all to hell. And more confusingly, he wasn't really angry about that. He wasn't repulsed.

No. He wanted him even more.

Jounouchi smirked. "I don't make out with guys for practical jokes, Kaiba."

"So you never hated me, then."

Jounouchi sighed and fell onto his back. He closed his eyes. "Kaiba, the way I felt about you has always been SO the opposite of hate."

"I hated you." Well, Kaiba wasn't about to stop being frank now just because the jackass had... Feelings for him.

Jounouchi didn't open his eyes. "Would you have noticed me any other way? Would you have spoken to me at ALL?"

"Probably not."

"Exactly. And don't say 'I didn't know' or some shit like that, because I didn't want you to know. I was enraged that you didn't know. I hated that you didn't know. I couldn't bear it that you didn't know. I can't stand it that you know now. I can't stand how much I want you."

Kaiba could have said a thousand different things. Instead, he said, "I want you, too."

And then, lips locked together, the two of them were shoving at one another again, pulling at each other's clothes.

"Meet you in my room?" Kaiba offered. He held his breath.

"How will I know which one it is? You've got, like, fifty million."

Kaiba groaned. "I am not staying here. That bartender will be back any moment."

"To see if he can service us in any way?" Jounouchi had a big grin on his face.

"Think you're so funny, don't you?" Kaiba scowled. "I can't..." Kaiba paused, trying to feign composure. "We can't just crawl into the house unseen. There are people here. People with press passes."

"Well, I don't know my way to your bedroom, and don't you have security on that anyway?"

"Fuck," Kaiba said. He grabbed Jounouchi, pulled him close, kissed him again. Softer this time. The blonde was wearing a spiced cologne, warm and delicious. Kaiba ran a hand through the other man's hair. It was so soft.

Jounouchi tugged at Kaiba's shirt and – something began to ring. Jounouchi let out a small, exasperated moan as Kaiba whipped a slim cellphone from somewhere.

"Mokuba? Yes. What? Don't be foolish. No. NO, I'll be there in ten minutes. All right. Really. Yes!"

Damn little brother, always worrying. Kaiba had been gone – what? An hour?

"I have to go," he told Jounouchi. Mokuba's grand midnight ceremony was about to begin and Kaiba was expected to be in it. Curse that kid's love for pomp and ceremony. Where the hell had he got it from anyway?

Oh. Right. Yeah.

Kaiba sighed.

"I have to go now."

The other man's face fell, a look of disappointment that seemed far too deep for a casual, drunken fumbling. Had Kaiba been wrong all along, or had Jounouchi changed in the intervening years – was he grown up now, whatever that meant? Or was he still the same naïve child?

"Come back tomorrow," Kaiba said.

"What?"

"Come back tomorrow."

Jounouchi stood up, his long legs flashing through the white fabric of his tunic. Kaiba bit down on his tongue to keep from saying anything truly stupid. This was maddening.

Jounouchi said, "Okay." And then he walked away. Within a minute he was gone into crowd.

Kaiba straightened his clothing. He put his dragon mask back on. Before he left the refreshment tent, he noticed that Jounouchi had left his greek mask lying on the bar. Kaiba left it there.


	2. All Saints

Thanks so much to the people who reviewed the first chapter, especially those of you that have been reviewing me since way back when. Nice to know there are still people out there reading. YGO forevs, right? Might be slow updating but I swear there's more.

**Chapter Two: All Saints**

Jou looked dubiously up at the gates to the Kaiba mansion. The house itself wasn't even in sight here, down near the road, but there was a crowd of paparazzi waiting none the less to catch a glimpse of... Something. Anything.

Him, actually. The flashes were very distracting. If he hadn't been wearing his helmet, they'd have probably blinded him by now.

Jounouchi frowned and leaned on the handlebars of his bike. He wasn't about to take the black hunk of plastic off and identify himself to the crowd, but that also meant he couldn't wave at the security camera and get let inside. He hadn't really thought this through.

Well gee, there was a surprise. When did he ever think these things through?

Could paparazzi trace the licence plate on his motorcycle and discover his identity? Maybe that was a little paranoid. Maybe not, though.

Jou pulled out his cellphone. He could call Mokuba. He had the kid's number, but not a reason to be let inside the Kaiba compound. Er... Lost something last night?

Like his dignity?

His self-control?

His mind?

Yeah. Maybe all of the above. Jounouchi was spared the dilemma of what to do next, however, when he glanced up along the tree-lined avenue to see a black car with tinted windows driving towards him. Jou climbed off the bike and wheeled it to one side. The gates swung open without even the good graces to make the ominous creak he expected post-Halloween, and the car stopped next to him.

However, Jounouchi was not expecting the window to roll down to reveal his little sister.

"Shiz?" he croaked. "What are you...? Where did you...?"

Mokuba's head leaned into view, pushing Jounouchi's little sister out of the way – not before her face turned a colour of scarlet to outshine even her hair.

"Hiya, Jou! ...That is you under that helmet, isn't it?"

Jounouchi just growled in response. "...You!"

"Whatcha doin' out here?"

"What is MY SISTER doing in there?"

"Geez, keep it down. I was driving her home exactly to spare her this kind of walk of shame, but if you want to broadcast her identity to those guys – " Mokuba thumbed at the frantic crowd of photographers – "I guess that's your right as her embarrassing older bro."

Jounouchi felt his hands twitch. He closed his eyes. This was not happening. This was SO not happening.

"Shizuka?" he said tentatively.

She pushed Mokuba out of the way. God damn if she wasn't giving him her best puppy dog eyes ever. "Yes, onii-san?"

"What happened?"

She giggled nervously. "Oh. Well, uh... I mean, it was so sweet, Jou. Mokuba – "

"Yeah." Mokuba jostled for position at the window. "I set some zombies on Honda."

"You WHAT?" Jou screeched.

"Harry Potter, right?" said Mokuba. "Well, I really wanted a chance to talk to Shizuka here, and I knew I wasn't going to get it with that wizard so focused on using his wand."

Shizuka giggled.

"Don't you laugh!" Jounouchi was beginning to feel one massive headache coming on. He needed to think of something else. Stress relief. Peace. Quiet. A massage. Sex.

ARGH!

"You shouldn't even understand that type of joke! You're too sweet, remember?"

"She IS sweet." Mokuba wrapped an arm around Shizuka's shoulder. "Don't worry, Jou. I'll look after her. I'll make sure she gets home okay."

"You better."

"Want me to let you in?"

Jounouchi counted to ten mentally. "Yes, please."

"Don't get lost on the way up, now."

"I won't," Jou said through clenched teeth.

"Although if you do, security will probably find you pretty quickly After all, Jou... Just remember that there are even more cameras in there than there are out here."

Jounouchi felt a cold creeping feeling in his toes. The smile dropped off his face – at least they couldn't see that from behind the helmet. For the second time in twenty four hours, Jou was glad nobody could see the real him.

"Uh... Is that right?"

"Yes," Mokuba said. "That's right. Security cameras pretty much _everywhere_."

And then the little bastard _winked_.

Oh, fuck-knuckles. The brat _knew_. Before Jounouchi could think of what to say, Mokuba took the opportunity to put his window up. The car pulled out abruptly and the Kaiba gates opened again as it sped off down the road.

Jounouchi jumped into action, leaping back on to the back of his black and silver cycle. He revved it to life and zoomed onto Kaiba property, tree-lined driveway now flying by.

This. This sort of thing was why people hated being awake early on Sunday mornings, he was sure.

* * *

"Mr Kaiba?"

Kaiba finished his lap of the indoor pool before responding. What? Like he was going to stop mid-stroke and ask what was so important? No.

He touched the wall and stood up, brushing wet hair out of his face in a quick, masculine gesture.

"Yes?"

"You appear to have a visitor, Sir."

"Is that so?"

"... Uh, yes, Sir. That is... The other Mr Kaiba let him in a few moments ago but didn't contact us to identify the man. What should we do when he reaches the house?"

Clearly, people getting onto the property because they were actually _allowed_ on it by a Kaiba brother was out of the realm of the collective imaginations in the security department. Of course, Kaiba wasn't paying them for creative thinking. He had armies of designers for that sort of thing.

"Let him in?"

"...Let him in?"

"Is there an echo in here? Yes, let him in, damn it. Is that _all_ you wanted?"

"Yes, Sir. Your breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes, Sir."

"I didn't order breakfast."

"Er... Your brother ordered it for you, Sir."

Kaiba repressed a sigh. "All right. Thank you. You can go now," he added, pointedly.

Finally, Tanaka got the hint.

Kaiba dropped backwards into the water and closed his eyes. He tried to relax as he slowly sunk down to the bottom of the pool – not deep, since it was for laps. There was a diving pool outside.

So, Jounouchi was actually coming by, and early. Earlier than Kaiba had expected. Kaiba sighed and a mass of bubbles erupted. It was oddly satisfying.

All right, time to make himself get out of the water.

He was wrapping the towel around his waist when the far doors to the pool opened. Jounouchi leaned himself in the doorway, black motorcycle helmet in hand. He was radiating cool and calm like James Dean, in a pair of well-fitted blue jeans, a red t shirt and a black leather jacket. Guh.

"Little cold for swimming, ain't it?" Jounouchi said.

That, right there. Comments like that were exactly what kept Kaiba from giving this buffoon even an afterthought before now.

Kaiba opened his mouth to snap, "Not when your pool is inside," but managed to stop himself at the last second. Now, now. Have to play nice, don't we? Instead, he managed to say, "I swim every Sunday morning," though the tone was still scornful. Hell, some things you just can't change over night.

Joey raised his eyebrows. "Well sure, when you've got your own pool." He looked down at the water, seeming a little wistful. "I don't remember the last time I went to the beach."

Kaiba said nothing.

Jounouchi cleared his throat. "I think I took Shizuka to Kamakura about three years ago."

Kaiba found himself still unable to say anything. He wasn't used to thinking before he spoke. Good god, what if he didn't actually know how to have a real conversation any more? Hrmm. Well, when had he ever?

"Breakfast," Kaiba said.

"Huh?"

Kaiba folded his arms with impatience. "Breakfast. Do you eat it?"

"Oh. Ah, yes." Jounouchi gave a good ol' boy smile that had surely dissolved the willpower of a lot of women at some point or another.

"Of course you are," Kaiba said dryly. He didn't know that much about Jounouchi Katsuya, but that limited information generally pertained to duelling and food. Hadn't Jounouchi said he owned a pizza place? He also seemed to remember the idiot stuffing his mouth indecorously on more than one occasion.

"Join me?" he offered.

"Sure," Jounouchi said, just a fraction too quickly.

Kaiba was pleased to see that small touch of eagerness. He was, however, a little concerned that he and – must not say "the mutt" – Jounouchi were still on opposite sides of a swimming pool.

"Come this way. I'll change first if you don't mind."

Jounouchi walked into the room, the thick door sliding shut behind him. He was wearing canvas sneakers that squeaked a little on the wet, tiled floor, and Kaiba was suddenly aware of the humming of the filter and heating system. It matched a humming he could feel under his skin.

He was reminded of several horror films he couldn't quite place – _Cat People_? _Jaws_? It struck him as funny.

Suddenly Kaiba realised Jounouchi was nearly to him, and he turned to lead the way. Avoiding looking another person in the face? Ha. Of course not. Kaiba Seto, nerves of steel.

"How was the water?" Jounouchi asked him. "Other than 'not cold'," he added.

Kaiba spared a glance backwards and saw a trace of awkwardness on the other man's face. Glad to know he wasn't the only one bad at making conversation that wasn't fuelled by martinis. Maybe a coffee would help.

Another coffee. All right, technically, a third coffee.

"Relaxing," said Kaiba, after a moment. "I don't swim to – "

There was another squeak behind him and suddenly a body crashed into him, hands latched to his shoulders like he was an anchor. Kaiba found himself half-spun towards Jounouchi, whose legs were akimbo and whose face was red and getting redder.

"Sorry!" Jounouchi spluttered. He seemed unable to let go of Kaiba's shoulders because he hadn't quite regained his balance yet. "I slipped!"

Kaiba stared into his honey-brown eyes.

"Honest," Jounouchi said. "It wasn't some kind of cheap trick!" he added somewhat hotly. "...If that's what you're thinking."

The range of emotions passing over his face were almost comical. Kaiba looked at it with self-control that only years of being... well, being Seto Kaiba could teach.

Jounouchi looked down, apparently embarrassed at the near-angry outburst, now almost bashful, and his expression froze.

"Uh, sorry."

Jounouchi straightened and let go of Kaiba as though their skin burned when it touched.

That was the moment Kaiba knew Jounouchi's impromptu body slam had dislodged his big, luxurious towel, showing a clear expanse of muscled thigh right up to his left hip. Certain strategic areas were still covered – just.

Kaiba felt his left finger twitch. He forced himself to very, very slowly wrap the towel back into itself... Not flustered. No way in hell.

Oh, fuck it.

Kaiba turned away quickly. He pushed open the doors at the opposite end of the room from where Jounouchi had entered. "That way is the kitchen," he said. He pointed. At least his voice sounded cold. It felt he was on fire. "I will meet you there when I have some clothes on."

Yes, his voice might have been cold, but even he knew as he walked away that the exit line was deliberately teasing.

Kaiba stalked off in the opposite direction. It wasn't that he was embarrassed – what did he actually have to be embarrassed about? He was pretty sure – call it a hunch – that Jounouchi, as mortified as he'd looked for causing such a faux pas, had not been at all unhappy to see that much skin. Kaiba had to admit to himself that he wasn't embarrassed about showing it.

It was the surprise that did it. Not the surprise of having a gorgeous looking, tanned blonde in tight jeans come crashing into him. It was the surprise of the realisation – Kaiba was not only unabashed about being that close to Jounouchi while half-naked, he had to admit to himself that he hoped it would happen again, and there'd be no towels around at all.

He'd invited Jounouchi here, but that was last night. He'd lain awake all night half-tormented by memory snaps of their so-brief tryst at the party – tossed and turned in his big, empty bed thinking of Jounouchi's hands, his lips, his strangely moving outburst and the fact that Kaiba used to curse his name when he'd even bothered to think of the other boy at all.

That was last night. He thought today in the bright morning light of All Saints Day, those feelings would have departed.

Instead apparently the only thing that had left him was his big, beautiful brain.

Now _that_ was painful to him. Thinking with his heart of any other body part was out of the question, wasn't it? No. It wasn't. And that, for Seto Kaiba, was truly embarrassing.

* * *

Jounouchi perched at the island in the centre of the massive kitchen, his fingers tapping on its marble countertop. There were three people buzzing around him. Two of them seemed to be cooking enough food to feed a third world country (yeah yeah, one of the smaller ones, but still) and the third seemed to exist just to follow in their wake and clean up the mess they left behind. Occasionally a puff of flour rose into the air for no reason that Jou could see.

He'd been there five minutes, and wasn't having much luck getting them to talk to him. He'd already asked what they were cooking. The cleaning boy seemed inclined to answer, but the fat one had given him a dirty look.

At least tapping his fingers kept him from stealing food. It was hard when there was such a freakin' mountain of it in front of him.

"Is this all just for breakfast?" he decided to try, next. Way to go, Jou. Keep up asking questions about the patently obvious and you'll be sure to win Kaiba's respect and adoration.

The fat one looked him up and down again. Jou wondered if he ate as much of the ingredients as went in the pan. The man was furiously stirring some kind of batter, and with every thrust of his arm it was like an earthquake rippled over the man's whole body.

"We just cook what we're told."

Jounouchi thought he'd try a different tactic. "I'm a cook," he offered.

The third one – the only girl, and a rather good looking one, looked at him with wide eyes.

"You are?"

"Well, yeah. I took a few Italian food courses. Can't do much other than that, though."

"You're not here for a job, are you?" she blurted, and the fat man promptly hit her in the head with his batter-covered wooden spoon, then threw it into the sink.

"What he's here for is none of our business until we're told what our business is!"

The girl blinked once or twice, and then reached up to touch the sticky, caramel-coloured mess in her hair.

Jounouchi, meanwhile, had jumped out of his chair. "Hey, you don't gotta be a jerk about it," he said. "She was just bein' nice." And in his head he added, What crawled up your ass and died there? Seriously, what was with this guy?

Was Kaiba such a jack-ass that it rubbed off on everyone around here?

The girl and the kid exchanged a glance, and turned quickly back to whatever it was they were doing.

The fat man sighed. "Look," he said. "I don't know who you are, or why you're in my kitchen, but we get all kinds of people through here and until we know which kind you are, we're not being paid to be nice to you, or give you any information whatsoever."

Wait, wait, wait... Was this guy being... Protective? Okay. Well. Maybe that was understandable. Jounouchi edged back onto his seat.

"Right..." he said. He smiled brightly. "Mokie and his bro appreciate that, I guess. I'll just sit quiet. Smells good, by the way."

The fat cook had time to give Jou once more suspicious look before that brother walked in. Fat man kept stirring, but the girl and the kid immediately dropped what they were doing and stood still, facing Kaiba.

A little creepy.

"Yama," Kaiba said. "What in the hell are you making?"

"Everything Mokuba-san told us too, Sir."

"I see. Well, I think this will be sufficient."

Jounouchi suppressed a grin. Although he had oh so recently and very definitely seen for himself that Kaiba wasn't scrawny, that didn't mean he wasn't very lean and very tall. He looked like he lived on coffee and stress. Or maybe he just didn't have time to eat most days?

Kaiba looked at the island where Jou sat. It was, of course, covered with breakfast foods, from waffles and bacon to cereals to platters of fruit. Fat guy – Yama – now seemed to be dipping bread in his batter to make some kind of French toast.

"I really should finish this toast, Sir, or it'll just go to waste."

Kaiba sighed. "Fine. Finish it and take it with you. Unless...?" he looked askance at Jou.

"Uh, no," Jounouchi said. "I think I'm good."

"Don't think I don't know that the only reason you're making it is because it's your favourite, Yama."

The fat man simply winked and slapped his dripping bread down on a hot fry pan.

"Sasuke, Aya, you two can finish cleaning whatever you were doing and go." Kaiba said to the other two. "Drink?" he said to Jounouchi.

"Coffee, juice, water, iced coffee, iced – "

"Just whatever you're having."

Kaiba frowned but flicked the switch on an electric kettle. "Two coffees, then."

Had he just annoyed Kaiba by saying that? Geez. Maybe he was in over his head.

Head over heels.

Something like that.

By the time Kaiba had put the mug down in front of Jou, Yama had finally finished his frying.

"Anything else you need me for, boss?"

"No," Kaiba said. "I think you've done enough."

And Yama trundled off happily with a mountain of golden-brown toast.

"Makes a guy think twice about a second breakfast," Jou said, watching the bulk move out of the room. Crap. That was probably rude, him being Kaiba's chef and all. "Uh, I mean... Sorry," he said, lamely.

Kaiba smirked slightly. "I'm sure it won't put you off." Then he reached for the cereal.

"Seriously? Cornflakes? You've got all this, and you're going with cornflakes?" Jounouchi had already managed to get a forkful of bacon and three waffles onto his plate.

"Normally when they over-order, I send the extra supplies out to various shelters. Unfortunately, thanks to Mokuba's thoughtful instruction, all this is open now. And if I don't eat the cornflakes, he certainly won't."

Kaiba sounded both mildly pissed and mildly amused at his little brother's, er... charms.

Jounouchi blinked and looked down at his own plate, now significantly more full with the addition of strawberries and a spoonful of scrambled eggs. "Uh..."

Kaiba snorted. "Oh, come on. Eat whatever you like... Jounouchi. Don't be so eager to please."

Jou stared.

"I'm sure Mokuba just ordered this to impress whatever girl he had here last night, anyway."

Then Jounouchi's left eye twitched a little, and he said a very loud, "Well, all right then!" and started to eat.

Do not think about THAT. Anyway, he didn't know whether to be more confused by Kaiba's self-suffering noble streak, the way Kaiba already seemed pissy with him, or the fact that he'd just been called by his name. By Seto Kaiba. Had that ever happened before?

This confusion didn't help him. Jou was starting to feel like he needed to say something smart. Something that would impress Kaiba. Something more meaningful than all the showboating and flirting he'd done last night.

It wasn't that he was desperate to be liked. It was just that he liked Kaiba desperately.

Oh hell, liked wasn't even the word. This was so effing messed up. How was he supposed to please someone who clearly didn't want to be pleased? Maybe the answer was that he shouldn't even try. Maybe he and Kaiba weren't destined to just... get along.

Then Jou realised they were eating in silence and heard himself say, "Well, this is weird."

Oh. Great. Bigmouth.

"Frankly, it is," Kaiba replied.

Double great. Triple great. Quadruple freakin' great.

"Well..." Jou laughed, nervously. "I keep getting the urge to apologise, but I'm not gonna because actually, I'm not sorry at all."

"Good," Kaiba said.

Jou gave a little cheer inside. Then Kaiba looked him square in the face.

Oh god Jou hoped he didn't have maple syrup on his chin.

"Look," he said. "I don't do well with people. I'm not an easy person to be around. Above all I don't suffer fools."

Jounouchi felt the hair on his neck start to rise – call it old instinct, but he could feel an insult coming on and he wasn't about to sit there and wait for it. "Okay," he said, "I don't – "

"Shut up for a moment," Kaiba said. Not exactly a good thing to say, because although Kaiba was used to being listened to, Jounouchi was not used to listening.

"'Shut up'?" Jou repeated. Very loudly.

Jou watched as Kaiba shut his eyes. "I meant to say," Kaiba said through clenched teeth, "Listen for a moment."

Wow. It felt like there was _almost_ the word PLEASE in that sentence. Jou forced himself to sit still, as Kaiba seemed to be exerting near super-human effort to be civil. That was definitely new.

"Sorry," Jou said, though it came out sounding more like a sarcastic growl than anything else. He cleared his throat, trying to sound more upbeat. "Go on."

Kaiba exhaled softly. "What I'm trying to say is, I'm not very good at being nice to people, and it's always been particularly difficult to be nice to you. Well, to be clear, it's always been particularly easy to be rude to you."

Jounouchi stared, more than a little dumbfounded. Kaiba was acting like he was making an apology, but all that was coming out of his was big fat jackassery.

"Last night... I've had some wild confessions before, but..." he trailed off.

"But what?" Jounouchi snapped. He just about couldn't stand it. He thought – he hoped that – Kaiba was _trying_ to be nice – possibly a sentence that had never, ever been thought by anyone before – and he still felt like he was about to get stepped on. There was an anxious feeling from his fingertips to his toes.

Breakfast in the kitchen, honestly. What a stupidly intimate way to try to get to know someone. He should have just waited until the afternoon. Idiot, idiot. Idiot.

"But none of them have ever..." Kaiba gritted his teeth. He looked like he was in the middle of getting one of them pulled, god damn it.

Yes? Yes, what? WHAT? Just spit it out, Jounouchi wanted to say, c'mon I can take it! Nothing you can say can hurt me really, ha ha, you big jackass, I was just being drunk and melodramatic. It's fine. Do your worst. It doesn't matter if you still hate me.

Except god, it did.

"None of them have ever made me feel the way yours did."

Jounouchi thought that if he'd been the one to say that in the cold sober morning, he'd probably be staring into his bowl of cereal, bright red and embarrassed and afraid to see the response.

Not Kaiba. Kaiba was staring directly at him, defiant, almost daring Jounouchi to react the wrong way, to repay Kaiba's clearly painful honesty with rejection or mockery. There was something in the tilt of his chin that made Kaiba bold where others would have been shy – defiant when they would have been embarrassed. Whereas Jounouchi was prone to bursting out his feelings when and as they occurred to him, Kaiba was laying them all down as facts.

And the fact of the matter was, Jounouchi just couldn't stop from leaning into Kaiba and kissing him.

For just one moment, the moment of Jounouchi's fear of rejection, it was a soft kiss. Then in the next second Kaiba had his hand on Jounouchi's neck, pulling him closer, and Jou was practically trying to eat the other man from the mouth down. Somewhere, like a sound in a room that was far away, Jou heard a clattering of plates. And one more moment later, he was pretty sure that his elbow was in some cereal.

He so didn't care.

* * *

**AN:** When Kaiba says, "Breakfast. Do you eat it?" ... The line wasn't supposed to come out like that. But I just couldn't resist. Because all I could think of was Samuel L Jackon: "English, motherf*****r. Do you speak it?" Ha!


	3. All Souls

Author's Note: Hi all. So, it took me a while (a long while) BUT I actually finished this story. Ta da! I even edited the first two chapters to take out a few things and keep the tone more consistent with this last, third instalment. Please enjoy (and if you enjoy, please review).

* * *

**Chapter 3: All Souls**

Jounouchi was in the kitchen, watching his apprentice chef make gnocchi before the dinner rush began. He was distracted from this when Shizuka burst through the swinging kitchen door to announce, "Jou! You better brace yourself! Is there some reason Seto Kaiba just walked in?"

Jounouchi looked up from the bowl of potato dough, startled. "Huh? He's here? ..._Why_?"

Shizuka grinned. She looked particularly cute in her waitress uniform. Jounouchi was frequently glaring at young, male customers who seemed particularly enamoured by her. There would probably be a few extra admirers today if she was in such a smiley mood. Jou thought that when Shizuka smiled it lit up a room, and it probably wasn't only his bias as her adoring big brother.

As she answered his question, Shizuka rolled her eyes. "Well, if you don't know, I sure don't."

Jounouchi frowned, suspicious at her good mood. "...Did he bring Mokuba?"

Shizuka sighed dramatically. "No! Alas, I will have to wait for our date tomorrow to see Mokuba."

"So why are you so happy about it?"

"Gotta go, bro! Orders to take!"

With that, she fled back through the door to the restaurant.

Jounouchi looked back at his apprentice. Yuichi looked particularly nervous. The kid was only sixteen, working at Jou's restaurant part-time after school.

"I'm not gonna have to make food for Seto Kaiba, am I?"

His anxiety almost made Jou laugh; it was typical of Yuichi, who seemed to worry about almost everything. Jounouchi managed to transform his amusement to an encouraging smile. Well, he hoped it was encouraging. "Don't worry, Yuu. I'm sure Seto Kaiba's food is made from the same ingredients that us mere mortals eat."

"But – but – "

"Settle down, he might not even order."

Unfortunately, at that moment, Shizuka sailed back into the kitchen. "Order up! Seto Kaiba wants a pizza."

"Jou!" Yuichi screeched, panicked.

"Chill out, would you? Finish the gnocchi; I'll get the pizza."

Jounouchi walked over to his little sister, who stood there waving the order docket in her hand. He plucked it out of her grasp and looked down at it. He only realised he'd stared at it for a little too long when Shizuka cleared her throat.

"So, what does he want?"

" 'Well, if you don't know, I sure don't' – you took the order!" Jou threw her smart alec comment back at her. "A margherita pizza, apparently."

Shizuka frowned. "You know that's not what I meant."

Jounouchi ground his teeth. He didn't like to snap at his sister, even though everyone else was fair game. Still, as anxiety roiled through his stomach, Jounouchi couldn't help but retort, "Well, the answer to your question ain't exactly written on this order in invisible ink. Go look after the customers."

Shizuka sighed over-dramatically again, and turned to leave the kitchen.

"And get him a martini while he's waiting," Jou added.

"A martini? Jou, it's four thirty in the afternoon!"

Jounouchi grinned. "I know that." Even he wasn't sure whether it was a gesture of good will, or a snub at Kaiba's expense. Let the guy sit there and try to figure it out himself while Jou made his food.

Shizuka left the kitchen, muttering, "This place just gets weirder all the time."

Jounouchi walked over to the pantry and grabbed a pizza base. Despite his reassuring comments to Yuichi, he wasn't happy about serving the dough his apprentice had already prepared for the night. On the other hand, he couldn't start from scratch; new dough would need at least forty minutes to rise, and that time was probably money for Mr Business out there. Figures Kaiba would order the most boring pizza they had. God, he'd have to do something to make it a little more exciting. Yuu's dough would just have to do; after all, they served it to other customers, didn't they?

As Jou began to roll the ball of dough out on the kitchen bench, his anxiety only grew. What _was_ Kaiba doing here? It had been two days since the damn Halloween party, and yesterday's exploits at the mansion hadn't exactly ended well. It wasn't that things went badly, exactly... Some things had gone way, way too well. Kaiba was sexy as all hell, and apparently an expert at almost _everything_ in life.

But despite their furious attraction to each other, actually talking to each other as human beings had been way too difficult. Jounouchi had found himself uncertain, nervous in ways he wasn't used to, and Kaiba's didn't seem to know how to have a nice, normal conversation with someone else at all. Jou still didn't know whether Kaiba was genuinely interested, or just attracted despite himself. God, he couldn't even tell whether Kaiba had _enjoyed_ yesterday, or if he was regretting it even as it happened.

Why had he shown up here? Jou hadn't even told Kaiba the name of his restaurant, so he'd obviously gone to some effort to track him down – even if that effort was just phoning Yuugi and asking. Though Kaiba would probably have his personal assistant make that call. Still... Kaiba had come here, into Jou's own territory. That made Jou feel a little better. Yesterday had been on Kaiba's property; Kaiba's terms. But this was Jounouchi's safe-haven, and Kaiba couldn't control what happened here.

Kaiba would know that. Nah, it wasn't paranoid to think so, either. He didn't know Kaiba that well – okay, he knew Kaiba as well as pretty much anyone except Mokuba actually _could_ know Kaiba. But if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that Kaiba was a strategist. He kept his fortune by considering these stupid little power plays and working them to his advantage. Even if normal human beings didn't think this way, surely for Kaiba, coming to see Jounouchi unasked like this was some kind of sign of good faith; a sign that he was willing to meet Jounouchi halfway.

Either that or he was just about to totally fuck up everything Jounouchi cared about in one fell swoop.

Cool, glad he thought of that possibility. That made him feel _so_ much better.

Jou tromped over to the fridge and started pulling out ingredients. He'd puree the tomato base from scratch, combining his roma tomatoes with some sundried ones for an extra kick. And he'd go quatro formaggi and combine some of their best cheeses, not just mozzarella. At least he always at the best quality mozzarella, too. And... he'd bake some basil onto the pizza and garnish it with some fresh leaves, too.

Okay, that wasn't too exciting, but it was the best he could do at a moment's thought. He didn't want to go beyond those classic ingredients; if Kaiba had wanted more than tomato, cheese and basil, he'd have ordered a different pizza.

* * *

When Kaiba had entered the restaurant – a small, unprepossessing place along one of the main streets in its suburb – a red-headed girl had appeared from nowhere and welcomed him. As she automatically led the way to a booth somewhat out of the way of the windows and door, Kaiba recognised her bouncing hair; it belonged to the dark magician girl that Jounouchi had been dancing with at the Halloween party. Out of her costume, she seemed even more familiar.

"There you are, Mr Kaiba."

Kaiba sat down and took a guess. "We've met before, haven't we...?"

The girl gave a friendly smile. "Yes, we have. I'm Kawai Shizuka."

The name rang a bell somewhere in the back of Kaiba's head, but he couldn't quite be sure.

"...I'm Jounouchi's sister?" she added.

Kaiba suppressed a frown, annoyed at himself for not realising it sooner. They'd met more than once before when he was a teenager, but she'd always been in the background. Not only that, but she looked so familiar because her brown eyes and her mouth resembled Jounouchi's own.

"Of course," Kaiba said, smoothly. "My apologies, I meet so many people and it's been a while, hasn't it?"

Shizuka kept her genial smile. He wondered if it was real or fake. "Of course. I'll be right back with a menu and some water for you, Mr Kaiba."

Kaiba pulled out his phone and began to check his business email, but he watched from the corner of his eye as the girl fled straight past the menu (stand near the register), and through the kitchen door. He wondered if that meant Jounouchi was out there, or if she was merely warning the kitchen staff.

He looked around the restaurant. It was simple, but warm and welcoming. The seats and tables were high quality and in good condition, and the decor was vaguely Mediterranean, with a few good pictures of famous Italian sights. He wondered where Jounouchi had learned to cook and if he'd ever actually been to Italy. Kaiba, of course, had – he'd taken Mokuba when his brother had taken an art history class, and been for business before.

Jounouchi's sister appeared back in front of him.

"Here's your menu, Mr Kaiba."

Kaiba took it and barely glanced over it. "Medium margherita."

Shizuka blinked, surprised that he didn't want more time. "No problem!"

Kaiba wondered what, if anything, Jounouchi had told his sister. Maybe it had been a stupid idea to come here. God only knew he had a million other things to be doing tonight. He'd left work early and was about to stand up Mokuba at a charity auction. Mokuba had organised the auction himself – but then, he organised them all the time. Point in case, that Halloween party only two nights earlier. And Kaiba knew that Mokuba would donate some stupid amount of money to some stupid thing they didn't need in his name, even if he wasn't there. So why not go eat a pizza?

He didn't quite know why he wanted to see Jounouchi so badly, but he knew things hadn't quite gone right the last few days. After their rather messy make-out session in his kitchen, the two had gone upstairs, and things had progressed so quickly from there that Kaiba wasn't sure why he'd bothered getting dressed after his swim at all. He should have just dropped the towel and let it go from there.

On the other hand, he wasn't sure how to feel about that kind of haste. He wasn't sure how to feel about Jounouchi. He'd thought that other man was an idiot for so many years, and he wasn't yet sure that he'd changed his mind. He wasn't really wrong; he just wasn't right either. It was a confusing realisation, and Kaiba was NOT used to feeling like he might have been wrong. He didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. His attraction to Jounouchi was overwhelming, and it was also a blow to his over-inflated ego.

They'd lain there afterwards, and he'd known Jounouchi had been uncomfortable. He'd listened to the other man babble. The problem was, Kaiba didn't know what to say in response . He didn't know what Jounouchi _expected_ him to say. What did normal people say, anyway?

But as he'd listened to Jounouchi babbling, he realised that the other man was far more intelligent than he'd ever given him credit for. The astounding thing was that he could actually be intelligent, and still be so incredibly ... Well, dumb. So impulsive. So genial. So naive about the world.

Eventually, Jounouchi had just left. Abruptly, too. And again, Kaiba had felt at fault – like he should have done something to encourage him to stay. Should have behaved differently so that Jounouchi hadn't wanted to leave in the first place. But he didn't know what, and he'd already warned Jounouchi that he was fairly inept at this kind of thing.

Kaiba been in a foul mood the rest of the day. He'd barked at Mokuba when his brother had come home until Mokuba had started shouting back. Eventually Mokuba shoved him into a chair in their movie room and told him to spill it.

To say that Kaiba had been _horrified_ that Mokuba had caught him making out with Jounouchi on the security tapes from the party was, well... An understatement. The understatement of the year.

And even though Kaiba would never admit it even to Mokuba, it chafed him that he needed relationship advice from his younger brother.

Mokuba's advice had been to get over himself – and the fact that he could actually be wrong now and then – and to just go and find Jounouchi and try again. Which was probably good advice. Hence, Kaiba was here. Sitting in Jounouchi's restaurant. Waiting for a pizza.

Jounouchi's sister was back. She looked slightly sheepish. She was holding a tray with a martini on it.

Kaiba took the glass without saying anything – but he did smirk.

* * *

Jounouchi stood in front of the oven, arms crossed, staring at it. It was radiating heat. The best part of owning this place was that at this time of year, when winter was really about to kick in, he knew that he'd be warm all season long in a kitchen. He'd hated winters when he was younger; his father's apartment was always freezing because his dad couldn't afford heating. It also made Jounouchi happy that his sister, his staff and customers could come in out of the cold to the smell of burning wood, warm cheese and fresh bread.

Speaking of which, Kaiba's pizza was pretty good.

"Uh, Jou?"

Jounouchi turned. Shizuka was standing there. Yuichi was in the background, trying to look disinterested. He'd finished the gnocchi and was on to prepping tomatoes.

"Is everything okay?"

"Of course."

"Um, okay. Well. Kaiba took his martini."

"That's good."

"How far away is his pizza?"

Jounouchi sighed and looked at his little sister. She looked innocent enough, but he was used to that old routine. This was the kind of girl who would look vulnerable and sweet, right up until she dived into an industrial harbour to save him from drowning. And from her weird mood right now, he suspected that Mokuba had filled her in on... Well, him and Kaiba. That little blabbermouth peeping tom.

"Take your break, Shizuka. I'll take it out to him."

Her eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"Yep."

"Well... okay."

She turned to leave the kitchen and step into the staff room – it was right next to his office, and both were next to the kitchen. Jou grabbed the long-handled utensil they used to pull pizzas out of the stone oven and opened the oven door.

"...Jou?"

"Mm?" he said, hit by a wave of warmth.

"I'm rooting for you!"

She vanished out the door again.

Jounouchi blinked. "Gee, great," he muttered. "... Yuichi, if you're going to chop tomatoes, that knife in your hand should probably be moving and not dangling there like a limp fish while you eavesdrop."

"Yes, Chef!" Yuichi practically squeaked.

Great, by the time the night was over, all of his staff were going to be giving him the third degree. His other two waitresses should arrive any minute for the dinner service, so it was going to be speculation all 'round.

Oh, well. Screw 'im.

And screw Kaiba too.

Jou grinned to himself. Hmm. Well, that wasn't such a bad plan, really. Assuming Kaiba hadn't just come here to dump his ass.

He prepared Kaiba's pizza on the wooden boards they used for plates, and headed out of the kitchen.

"Your margherita pizza." Jou deposited it on the table in front of Kaiba. He was pleased to note that the martini glass was empty.

The other man didn't look surprised to see him suddenly appear, but then, Kaiba generally only looked surprised when some kind of bad guy with bizarre mystical powers popped out of the woodwork and kidnapped Mokuba. Which hadn't happened in years.

Jou decided to take initiative. "Mind if I sit?"

"I'd like that."

Jou slumped into the opposite side of the booth. As he did so, he spotted Meiko and Eri, the other two waitresses, push the swinging door of the kitchen open to peer out at him. He raised an eyebrow at them and the door quickly shut again.

Kaiba glanced in the direction of the door. "Problems with your staff?" he asked, dryly.

"Nah, they're just excited to have such a big celebrity customer." Jou managed to keep his tone light.

The pizza sat on the table in front of them. Kaiba made no move to eat it.

"Please." Jounouchi gestured towards it. "Don't stand on ceremony."

Kaiba glanced down at the pizza, dubious.

"What, do you think I poisoned it?"

"Maybe not intentionally," Kaiba retorted, "But how do I know your food is actually edible?"

"Well, we haven't had a customer die yet. Even from the Death by Chocolate dessert pizza."

"Dessert pizza?"

"Mmm. You know, sweet toppings." Jou narrowed his eyes. "If you'd actually read the menu, you'd have read all about them."

For a second there, Kaiba actually looked kind of wistful.

"...Wait, do you have sweet tooth, Kaiba?"

Kaiba glared at him. "No."

"Because you look like you're regretting your choice, there. Your choice of the most boring, most difficult-to-somehow-screw-up pizza that we have. Lesser men than myself might take that choice as kind of an insult, you know."

Kaiba didn't bother to reply, he simply took a big bite of his margherita. Jounouchi was pleased to see the first bite quickly followed by a second, then a third.

"This is good," Kaiba said. Gee, how generous.

"You should try the Death by Chocolate."

"I don't have a sweet tooth."

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

Kaiba sighed sound exasperated – which amused Jounouchi even more. To his surprise, Kaiba said, "You're right. I do have a sweet tooth. And if you start harping on about it, you'll be the one who dies."

Jounouchi grinned, delighted to get both a confession and a threat. "What, you're too cool for cake? Imagine the headlines if the world found out – 'Seto Kaiba only human - succumbs to mere confectionary.'"

Kaiba glared but didn't reply, and they sat in silence as Kaiba ate. Jounouchi felt like it was a more pleasant silence than yesterday's stilted post-coital conversation – maybe because they weren't trying so hard to be... Well, _nice_ to each other.

Customers had begun to trickle into the restaurant; nothing that Jounouchi's staff couldn't handle, yet. Meiko seemed to be flitting between tables. Eri was probably in the kitchen flirting with Yuichi... Another thing that made the poor kid nervous.

"Why'd you come here tonight, Kaiba?"

Kaiba didn't reply.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I am surprised."

After a lengthy pause, in which Jou had to bite his tongue to keep from babbling further, Kaiba said, "I'm sorry about yesterday."

Jou didn't know whether to cheer or cry at this statement. "What part of yesterday, exactly?"

He stared at Kaiba, and as the other man returned his stare coolly, Jounouchi felt himself began to blush.

"Not that part," Kaiba said. "That part was..." He cleared his throat. Jounouchi wondered for a second if Kaiba would say something that sounded like a business report. Satisfactory? It met the company's standards? Fortunately, Kaiba didn't finish the sentence.

"I don't often apologise for this," Kaiba said. "But I am sorry I am not better at putting people at ease. Well," he corrected himself. "Screw people, really. But I am sorry I was not better at putting you at ease."

Jounouchi sat forward. He ran a hand through his hair. "Look, Kaiba. You don't have to put me at ease, exactly. I don't expect you to constantly give me platitudes. That's not... That's not who you are." He paused. "That's not the person I've been attracted to for so long." He could feel himself blushing again, which was really enormously irritating. He didn't want to seem like some schoolgirl with a crush.

Kaiba's blue eyes seemed even more intense than usual.

"I just... I need you to respond a little. I feel like I took off my mask at that party, but maybe yours doesn't come off. At least, not that quickly. And you don't have to tell me what you're thinking, what you're feeling, all the time, though obviously, I'm interested in those things. But I don't know what to do with you. I feel like a dog that's been chasing a car and suddenly I've bit down on the bumper."

Jounouchi paused when he realised what he'd just said. Had he just... used a metaphor... calling himself a dog?

Kaiba was smirking. Nothing unusual there.

"Don't. Even. Start." Jounouchi said, through clenched teeth.

Kaiba just gave an elegant shrug. He continued to smirk. Damn bastard.

"Look. What I'm saying is, I just need you to be clear whether you want me around or not. I have no idea if the past two days meant anything to you, but they meant something to me."

Kaiba finished his pizza. They sat in silence. Jounouchi felt his frustrating growing in the face of Kaiba's calmness. It was infuriating, really. How could one man make him so irritated and yet be so god damn attractive? It just wasn't fair.

* * *

Across the table, Kaiba could see Jounouchi losing his calm as he didn't respond. Kaiba just couldn't help it. He liked seeing Jounouchi irritated. Was that so wrong? And anyway, there was something about the shape of his mouth when he frowned, and the heat in his honey-brown eyes as he got more and more annoyed.

Kaiba didn't know whether this was the first time he'd ever really noticed it, or if part of him had always enjoyed pissing off Jounouchi for just this reason. It was unfair of him to do it now, really, but he couldn't help himself. He was used to playing with other people, and even though his intentions weren't really malicious here, Jounouchi just made it so damn easy. Honestly, why would Jou think Kaiba would come here at all today, if he didn't want to be around him?

And to Kaiba's own surprise... He did want to be around Jounouchi. He didn't like feeling confused – didn't like emotional turmoil. But he was sick of avoiding other people, avoiding emotional commitments, sick of living half-alive. Arguing with Jounouchi made him feel more engaged with another person than he'd felt in a long time.

What's more, Kaiba realised, sitting here, that when they had both stopped trying so hard to be damned likeable, being with Jounouchi wasn't difficult at all. They'd both been on their best behaviour yesterday, and combining that with the almost inexplicable pull between them was what had made things so awkward and difficult.

But arguing... Well, that was easy. That was fun. Pushing Jounouchi's buttons was as enjoyable as it had ever been – in fact, their attraction made it even more so. And kissing Jounouchi made Kaiba feel... Well.

Jounouchi's anger had reached a crescendo. He stood up. "Right, well. Glad we cleared that up. Thank you so much for stopping by today Kaiba, it's really been _great_ to see you again. Let me take your plate."

Jounouchi snatched the empty pizza board off the table and turned to walk away. It seemed to take him a few steps before he realised that Kaiba was following him. But he continued to storm off. He made it all the way into the kitchen before he turned around.

"What?" he snapped. "What else do you want? This is a staff only area so unless you have some perverse aspiration to become a waiter..."

Kaiba grabbed Jounouchi by the wrist.

"No, I just didn't want to create a scene in front of your customers," Kaiba said with another smirk. And then, before Jounouchi had a chance to respond, he used his grip on Jounouchi's wrist to roughly pull the other man into him.

Jounouchi's eyes widened, and then Kaiba kissed him. The instant their lips met, it was like kissing again for the first time, and part of Kaiba's brain wondered how long that shock-factor would last. It wasn't just that Jounouchi was a good kisser – which he was – or that he had wonderfully soft lips – which he did – but there was some switch in Kaiba's brain that instantly flipped on, just at the thought that it was _Jounouchi_ of all people that made him feel this way. There was a history between them, a connection that was undeniable, and that connection added so many layers of meaning to such a simple act.

In that moment, as he wrapped his other arm around Jounouchi's waist, Kaiba realised that he wasn't egotistically furious that he'd be wrong about Jounouchi. He was delighted.

Vaguely, like it was coming from somewhere far away, Kaiba heard Jounouchi's staff squealing in shock. And someone said, "Way to go, big brother!"

But even when they separated, Kaiba couldn't quite bring himself to care about their onlookers. It was unlike him to flaunt anything private in front of others; but then, it was utterly typical of him to focus on a goal and not give a flying fuck about what anyone else thought.

He couldn't believe Jounouchi could be so uncertain about how Kaiba felt. Again – how could anyone be smart and yet be so dumb? Surely it was obvious that every time they touched, Kaiba felt as though he'd received a minor electric shock.

"Jounouchi... Why would I be here if I didn't want to be around you?"

Jounouchi opened his mouth to reply, and for a moment it seemed as though the reply would be an angry one. But Jou paused, and there was a flash of softness in his dark eyes before he laughed, and said, "How the freaking hell should I know? Maybe you just wanted a pizza!"

Kaiba snorted. "Yes, and maybe hell is cold, and maybe pigs can fly, and maybe Duel Monsters is just a children's card game."

And then, this time more gently, Kaiba leaned in and gave Jounouchi a kiss that wasn't long, but was soft.

This time, there was a flurry of motion around them as Jounouchi's sister snapped at the cook to get back to chopping mushrooms and started to herd the other waitresses into the restaurant proper.

"That's all the answer you get." Kaiba lowered his voice so the others, now at least pretending to mind their own business on their way through the door, couldn't hear the rest of what he said. "This isn't a mask, Jounouchi. It's not something I can put on and take off for a Halloween party. If you put up with me long enough, you'll know me better. That's all there is to it."

Jounouchi swallowed. "I can live with that."

"Good." Kaiba stepped back.

At that moment, Shizuka burst through the kitchen door. "Jou! We've got problems. A group of fifteen teenagers just walked in without a booking. We can fit them for the night, but we have a birthday party coming in twenty minutes for another twelve people. They're all going to want food at once."

Shizuka left as abruptly as she'd entered, with Jou staring after her. "Two-balled bitch!" he exclaimed.

Kaiba snorted, and Jou turned back to him, startled.

"I should let you get back to business," Kaiba said.

Jounouchi sighed. "Yeah, sounds like I've got an army of hungry teenagers about to descend."

Kaiba moved toward the door. "Let me know when you win the war."

Jounouchi leered. "Don't you want to stick around to see my weapon of mass destruction?"

Kaiba, to his own surprise, actually laughed. "I am quite certain that what you are referring to is the much talked-of Death by Chocolate pizza."

Jounouchi winked. "That's the one. Now get out of my kitchen. Don't you have... I don't know? A theme park to build? Some people to fire? Dreams to crush?"

"Something like that," Kaiba said dryly. "Call me later."

"I'll bring something sweet for you," Jou called after him.

Kaiba hid his smile as he walked out the door. A successful social interaction with a man he was attracted to –and not just any man, but Jounouchi. And only fuelled by a single martini. The tabloids could never print anything _that_ wild.

As Kaiba walked past the register, he was momentarily stopped by Jounouchi's sister.

"Hey, Kaiba," she said.

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. Looks like she was done with being polite, then.

"Tell your brother I look forward to seeing him tomorrow."

Kaiba stopped in his tracks. "What?"

Shizuka giggled and gave him a wink very similar to the one he'd just received from Jounouchi. Then she bustled off with an armful of water glasses.

Kaiba sighed. Oh great. So he was going to have to learn to deal with not one Jounouchi family member, but two. He was going to get Mokuba for this betrayal. For starters, those Halloween decorations lying around could surely be used to give his little brother a good scare. God, it would only be a matter of hours before Mokuba stopped giving him sincere advice about how to deal with Jounouchi, and started teasing him instead.

Kaiba shrugged.

He so didn't care.


End file.
